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Predictions made in Albacete et al. [Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 22 (2013) 1330007] prior to the LHC p+Pb run at sNN = 5 TeV are compared to currently available data. Some predictions shown here have been updated by including the same experimental cuts as the data. Some additional predictions are also presented, especially for quarkonia, that were provided to the experiments before the data were made public but were too late for the original publication.

At low to moderate collision energies where the parton formation time τF is not small compared to the nuclear crossing time, the finite nuclear thickness significantly affects the energy density ϵ(t) and net conserved-charge densities such as the net-baryon density nB(t) produced in heavy ion collisions. As a result, at low to moderate energies the trajectory in the QCD phase diagram is also affected by the finite nuclear thickness. Here, we first discuss our semi-analytical model and its results on ϵ(f), nR(t), nQ(t), and ns(t) in central Au+Au collisions. We then compare the T(t), μB(t), μQ(t), and μS(t) extracted with the ideal gas equation of state (EoS) with quantum statistics to those extracted with a lattice QCD-based EoS. We also compare the T-μB trajectories with the RHIC chemical freezeout data. Finally, we discuss the effect of transverse flow on the trajectories.

Although strange quarks are produced in ss¯ss¯ pairs, the ratio of Ω− to Ω¯+Ω¯+ is greater than one in heavy-ion collisions at lower RHIC energies. Thus the produced Ω hyperons must carry net baryon quantum numbers from the colliding nuclei. We present results of K-Ω correlations from AMPT model simulations of Au+Au collisions at √SNN = 14.6 GeVsNN=14.6 GeV, to probe dynamics for baryon number transport to mid-rapidities at this beam energy. We use both the default and string-melting versions to illustrate how hadronization schemes of quark coalescence and string fragmentations could leave imprints on such correlations. Implications on the measurements of these correlations with the STAR experiment at RHIC will also be discussed.

Recently, the rapidity-odd directed flow ( v 1 ) of produced hadrons ( K − , ϕ , p ¯ , Λ ¯ , Ξ ¯ + , Ω − , and Ω ¯ + ) has been studied. Several combinations of these produced hadrons, with very small mass differences but differences in the net electric charge ( Δ q ) and net strangeness ( Δ S ) on the two sides, have been considered. A difference in v 1 between the two sides of these combinations ( Δ v 1 ) has been proposed as a consequence of the electromagnetic field produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, especially if Δ v 1 increases with Δ q . Our study is performed to understand the effect of the coalescence sum rule (CSR) on Δ v 1 . We point out that the CSR leads to Δ v 1 = c q Δ q + c S Δ S , where the coefficients c q and c S reflect the Δ v 1 of produced quarks. Equivalently, one can write Δ v 1 = c q Δ q + c B Δ B , involving the difference in the net baryon number Δ B , where the CSR gives c B = − 3 c S . We then propose two methods to extract the coefficients for the Δ q and Δ S dependences of Δ v 1 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current version of a multi-phase transport (AMPT) model with string melting can reasonably describe the dN/dy yields, pT spectra and anisotropic flows of pions and kaons at low pT in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies, although it failed to reproduce the dN/dy and pT spectra of baryons. In this work, we improve the quark coalescence mechanism in AMPT by removing the forced separate number conservations of mesons, baryons and antibaryons in each event. We find that the improved AMPT model can better describe the yields at midrapidity, the pT spectra and elliptic flow of low-pT baryons in comparison with the experimental data. Antiparticle-to-particle ratios of strange baryons are also significantly improved.

The vorticity-driven effects are systematically studied in various aspects. With AMPT the distributions of vorticity has been investigated in heavy ion collisions with different collision parameters. Taking the rotational polarization effect into account a generic condensate suppression mechanism is discussed and quantitatively studied with NJL model. And in chiral restored phase the chiral vortical effects would generate a new collective mode, i.e. the chiral vortical wave. Using the rotating quark-gluon plasma in heavy ion collisions as a concrete example, we show the formation of induced flavor quadrupole in QGP and estimate the elliptic flow splitting effect for Λ baryons.

In earlier studies we have proposed that most parton v2 comes from the anisotropic escape of partons, not from the hydrodynamic flow, even for semi-central Au+Au collisions at SNN = 200 GeV. Here we study the flavor dependence of this escape mechanism with a multi-phase transport model. In contrast to naive expectations, we find that the charm v2 is much more sensitive to the hydrodynamic flow than the lighter quark v2, and the fraction of v2 from the escape mechanism decreases strongly with the quark mass for large collision systems. We also find that the light quark collective flow is essential for the charm quark v2. Our finding thus suggests that heavy quark flows are better probes of the quark-gluon-plasma properties than light quark flows.

The Petasis reaction using (1S,2R)-1-amino-2-indanol as the substrate and an activator to construct α- and β-butadienyl amines in optically pure forms was realized, which are otherwise difficult to prepare. The reactions feature a metal-free nature, broad substrate scope, complete regioselectivities (γ-selectivity of pinacol homoallenyl- and isoprenylboronates), and high to excellent chirality induction (up to >20 : 1 dr). The favored nucleophilic addition across the Si-face of the imine intermediate was explained using DFT calculations of the six-membered chair-like transition state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Liuweibuqi (LWBQ) capsule has been reported to influence symptoms of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, specific function of LWBQ capsules in COPD with lung-qi deficiency syndrome remains elusive. Objective: This study investigates effect of LWBQ capsules on STAT4/STAT6 and MMP-9/TIMP-1 expression and pulmonary function in stable COPD with lung-qi deficiency syndrome. Materials and methods: Totally, 429 patients diagnosed with stable COPD and lung-qi deficiency syndrome were treated with starch capsules (each time for 9 capsules), or different doses: low (each dose for 8 capsules and 1 LWBQ capsules), medium (each time for 6 capsules and 3 LWBQ capsules), or high (each time for 9 LWBQ capsules) of LWBQ capsules for 30 days, 3 times a day. Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1/FVC% and DLco%pred were evaluated by pulmonary function meter. STAT4/STAT6 and MMP-9/TIMP-1 expression was assessed by RT-qPCR and western blot analysis, and serum concentrations of IL-4, IFN-γ and IL-6 by ELISA. Results: Spearman rank correlation analysis and ROC curve showed that STAT4/STAT6 and MMP-9/TIMP-1 affected pulmonary functions and curative effect of stable COPD with lung-qi deficiency syndrome. After LWBQ capsule treatment, FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC% and DLco%pred elevated; STAT4/STAT6, MMP-9/TIMP-1, IFN-γ and IL-6 expression declined whereas IL-4 expression increased (p < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that FEV1/FVC was negatively correlated with STAT4/STAT6 and MMP-9/TIMP-1 expression in COPD patients. Conclusions: LWBQ capsules play a beneficial role in pulmonary function of stable COPD with lung-qi deficiency syndrome via STAT4/STAT6 and MMP-9/TIMP-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this report, we presented a new approach to access a (1,3-butadiene-2-yl)carbinol, (1R,2R)- and (1S,2S)-1-(hydroxymethyl)-1-vinyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene-2-ols. Starting from commercially available 1,4-diol-2-butyne, a six-step synthesis involving dibromination, Zn-mediated addition reaction of phenylpropyl aldehyde, epoxidation, epoxy-arene cyclization, and resolution with D(+)-Camphor afforded the title compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual C–H thiolation reactions using elemental sulphur remain a challenge. This communication discloses an oxidative radical dual sp2/sp3 C–H thiolation strategy for the coupling of imidazopyridines with ethers or alkanes using elemental sulphur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictions made in Albacete et al. [ Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 22 (2013) 1330007] prior to the LHC Pb run at TeV are compared to currently available data. Some predictions shown here have been updated by including the same experimental cuts as the data. Some additional predictions are also presented, especially for quarkonia, that were provided to the experiments before the data were made public but were too late for the original publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied the K* production within a multi-phase transport model (AMPT) for + collisions at to understand the hadronic re-scattering effect on the measured yields of the resonance. The hadronic re-scattering of the K* decay daughter particles (π and K) will alter their momentum distribution thereby making it difficult to reconstruct the K* signal through the invariant mass method. An increased hadronic re-scattering effect thus leads to a decrease in the reconstructed yield of K* in the heavy-ion collisions. Through this simulation study, we argue that a decrease in K*/K ratio with the increase in collision centrality necessarily reflects the hadronic re-scattering effect. Since the re-scattering occurs in the hadronic phase and K* has a lifetime of 4 fm/c, we present a toy model-based discussion on using measured K*/K to put a lower limit on the hadronic phase lifetime in high energy nuclear collisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondrial DNA of nematodes undergoes frequent rearrangements, so it is a very good model for studying the mitochondrial genome evolution. The complete mitochondrial genome of a parasitic nematodeSenga ophiocephalinawas sequenced and annotated. The 13,816 bp-long genome contained 12 protein-coding genes (atp8gene was missing), two ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs, and a 391 bp non-coding region. Phylogenetic analysis showed thatS. ophiocephalinaforms a monophyletic cluster with the remaining two Bothriocephalidae species. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using a multiphase transport model, we study the production of multistrange (anti)baryons from the hadronic matter formed in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The mechanism we introduce is the strangeness-exchange reactions between antikaons and hyperons for strange particle production and between kaons and antihyperons for strange antiparticle production. We find that these reactions contribute significantly to the production of multistrange baryons and antibaryons in heavy ion collisions at SPS energies, which has been found to be appreciably enhanced. We have also made predictions for multistrange baryon and antibaryon production in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and found a similar enhancement. The (anti)particle mass dependence of inverse slope parameters extracted from their transverse mass spectra in the transport model exhibit similar trend as in the available experimental data at both SPS and RHIC energies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of Leonuri Herba aqueous decoction on primary dysmenorrhea(PD) and explore the underlying mechanism in conjunction with untargeted metabolomics. Forty adult female rats were randomly divi-ded into a normal group, a model control group, ibuprofen(0.12 g·kg~(-1)) group, and high-and low-dose Leonuri Herba aqueous decoction(5 and 2.5 g·kg~(-1)) groups, with eight rats in each group. The PD rat model was prepared using intramuscular injection of estradiol benzoate combined with intraperitoneal injection of pitocin. Drugs were administered by gavage from the 4th day of modeling for 7 d. After the last administration, pitocin was injected intraperitoneally, and the writhing latency and writhing times within 30 min were recorded. The uterine and ovarian coefficients were determined. Estradiol(E&#95;2), progesterone(Prog), oxytocin(OT), cyclooxyge-nase 2(COX-2), prostaglandin E&#95;2(PGE&#95;2), prostaglandin F&#95;(2α)(PGF&#95;(2α)), and Ca~(2+) levels in uterine tissues were measured by ELISA and biochemical kits. Morphological changes in uterine and ovarian tissues were observed by hematoxylin-eosin(HE) staining. The protein expression of oxytocin receptor(OTR), prostaglandin E&#95;2 receptor 3(EP3), and estrogen receptor alpha(ERα) in uterine tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry. The mRNA expression of OTR, PGE&#95;2 receptors 1-4(EP1, EP2, EP3, and EP4), and PGF&#95;(2α) receptor(FP) in uterine tissues was detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Untargeted metabolomics analysis was performed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry(LC-QTOF-MS) technology to screen potential biomarkers and enrich metabolic pathways. The results showed that Leonuri Herba was able to significantly reduce the writhing times in PD rats(P&lt;0.05 or P&lt;0.01), significantly reduce the uterine and ovarian coefficients(P&lt;0.01), and improve their histomorphology. After treatment with Leonuri Herba, PGE&#95;2 content was significantly increased(P&lt;0.05), COX-2, PGF&#95;(2α) and Ca~(2+) content, and PGF&#95;(2α)/PGE&#95;2 was significantly decreased(P&lt;0.05 or P&lt;0.01), and OT content was decreased, while E&#95;2 and Prog content tended to further increase in uterine tissues of PD rats. Correspondingly, OTR and EP3 protein expression was significantly downregulated(P&lt;0.05 or P&lt;0.01) and ERα protein expression was upregulated(P&lt;0.05) in uterine tissues. The mRNA expression of FP and EP4 in uterine tissues was significantly downregulated(P&lt;0.01), and the mRNA expression of EP1, EP3, and OTR showed a decreasing trend. The untargeted metabolomics results showed that 10 differential metabolites were restored in the plasma of PD rats after Leonuri Herba treatment. The results indicate that Leonuri Herba is effective in the prevention and treatment of PD, and the underlying mechanism may be attributed to the regulation of PGs synthesis and corresponding receptor binding.

The evolution of multiphoton microscopy is critically dependent on the development of ultrafast laser technologies. The ultrashort pulse laser source at 1.7 µm waveband is attractive for in-depth three-photon imaging owing to the reduced scattering and absorption effects in biological tissues. Herein, we report on a 1.7 µm passively mode-locked figure-9 Tm-doped fiber laser. The nonreciprocal phase shifter that consists of two quarter-wave plates and a Faraday rotator introduces phase bias between the counter-propagating beams in the nonlinear amplifying loop mirror. The cavity dispersion is compensated to be slightly positive, enabling the proposed 1.7 µm ultrafast fiber laser to deliver the dissipative soliton with a 3-dB bandwidth of 20 nm. Moreover, the mode-locked spectral bandwidth could be flexibly tuned with different phase biases by rotating the wave plates. The demonstration of figure-9 Tm-doped ultrafast fiber laser would pave the way to develop the robust 1.7 µm ultrashort pulse laser sources, which could find important application for three-photon deep-tissue imaging.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become a severe threat to human beings with increasing morbidity and mortality. Isorhamnetin (Iso) shows multiple bioactivities, especially in the cardiovascular system. A literature retrieval strategy was conducted in databases of PubMed, GeenMedical, Sci-Hub, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Baidu Scholar, with keywords defined as: "Isorhamnetin", "cardiovascular diseases", "pharmacological effects", "phytochemistry", "pharmacokinetics", "clinical application" and "toxicity". The language is restricted to Chinese and English, and publish date ranges from January, 2011 to September, 2021. So far, Iso has been isolated and identified from several natural medicines, including Hippophae rhamnoides L., Ginkgo biloba L. and Typha angustifolia L., etc. The effects of Iso on CVD are pharmacological, including anti-atherosclerosis, reducing blood fat, anti-inflammation, antioxidation, endothelial protection, antithrombosis, antiplatelet aggregation, myocardial protection, and anti-hypertension. Iso could inhibit the activities of CYPs in liver microsomes and suppress hepatocyte injury in vitro. However, no toxicity was observed in vivo. Taken together, Iso has a wide range of positive effects on CVD with safe and multiple pharmacological activities on the cardiovascular system and may be an ideal candidate drug for the prevention and treatment of CVD. Therefore, further studies, especially on its clinic use, need to be conducted. The present review summarizes the recent progress in phytochemistry, pharmacology, and mechanisms of action and provides a reference for future studies on Iso., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Under the approximate chiral symmetry restoration, quark interactions with topological gluon fields in quantum chromodynamics can induce a chirality imbalance and parity violation in local domains. An electric charge separation (CS) could be generated along the direction of a strong magnetic field (B), a phenomenon called the chiral magnetic effect (CME). CS measurements by azimuthal correlators are contaminated by major backgrounds from elliptic flow anisotropy (v&#95;{2}). Isobaric &#95;{44}^{96}Ru+&#95;{44}^{96}Ru and &#95;{40}^{96}Zr+&#95;{40}^{96}Zr collisions have been proposed to identify the CME (expected to differ between the two systems) out of the backgrounds (to be almost the same). We show, by using the density functional theory calculations of the proton and neutron distributions, that these expectations may not hold as originally anticipated because the two systems may have sizable differences in eccentricity and v&#95;{2}.

A three-component Petasis-type gem-difluoroallylation reaction of using pinacol gem-difluoroallylboronates, aldehydes or isatin, and β-amino alcohols enabled by the neighboring hydroxyl group in amine is reported, affording various racemic and chiral gem-difluorohomoallylamine derivatives with good to excellent results. Based on the control experiment and stereochemistry of the product, a proposed reaction pathway is illustrated to clarify the origin of regio- and stereoselectivity under protic solvent conditions.

Mitochondrial DNA of nematodes undergoes frequent rearrangements, so it is a very good model for studying the mitochondrial genome evolution. The complete mitochondrial genome of a parasitic nematode Senga ophiocephalina was sequenced and annotated. The 13,816 bp-long genome contained 12 protein-coding genes ( atp8 gene was missing), two ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs, and a 391 bp non-coding region. Phylogenetic analysis showed that S. ophiocephalina forms a monophyletic cluster with the remaining two Bothriocephalidae species., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflict of interest., (© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Background: Cancer risks at multiple cancer sites have been shown to correlate positively with height. An existing idea is that taller people have more cells and thus more prone to mutations that will lead to cancer, and the hypothesis is that cancer risk is proportional to the organ mass. In this study we quantitatively test this hypothesis., Methods: We perform an analysis of large-scale data on the height dependence of site-specific cancer risks. We also perform an analysis of the height dependence of measured organ masses. We then compare the cancer risk data with the expectations based on the organ mass hypothesis. Our study includes 16 cancer sites of women and 14 cancer sites of men., Results: For the relative risk (RR) per 10 cm increase in height for cancer incidence, the averaged expected value is within the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the averaged cancer risk data for 8 out of the 15 cancer sites for which the comparison can be made. Also, a large proportion of the sex difference of cancer risks for pancreas and lungs could come from the sex difference of the organ mass., Conclusions: The hypothesis that cancer risk is proportional to the organ mass partially explains the height dependence of cancer risks. It also helps explain the sex difference of cancer risks, especially for pancreas and lungs.

Based on the quark coalescence model for the parton-to-hadron phase transition in relativistic heavy ion collisions, we relate the elliptic flow (upsilon(2)) of high p(T) hadrons to that of high p(T) quarks. For high p(T) hadrons produced from an isospin-symmetric and quark-antiquark-symmetric partonic matter, magnitudes of their elliptic flows follow a flavor ordering as (upsilon(2,pi)=upsilon(2,N))>(upsilon(2,Lambda)=upsilon(2,Sigma))>upsilon(2,K)>upsilon(2,Xi)>(upsilon(2,phi)=upsilon(2,Omega)) if strange quarks have a smaller elliptic flow than light quarks. The elliptic flows of high p(T) hadrons further follow a simple quark counting rule if strange quarks and light quarks have the same high p(T) spectrum and coalescence probability.

Using a multiphase transport model that includes both initial partonic and final hadronic interactions, we study the pion interferometry at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider. We find that the two-pion correlation function is sensitive to the magnitude of the parton-scattering cross section, which controls the parton density at which the transition from the partonic to hadronic matter occurs. Also, the emission source of pions is non-Gaussian, leading to source radii that can be more than twice larger than the radius parameters extracted from a Gaussian fit to the correlation function.